'Fishing the tide' is great advice for anglers

In my dream world, Congress would enact Sportsmen's Savings Time (SST), which permanently fixes sunrise at 10 a.m. That way anglers, hunters and other outdoors folk could sleep until about 8 a.m., then have an hour for coffee and beignets while the rush-hour traffic was clearing before finally leaving home -- still an hour before sunup.

This would make my life so much more enjoyable. No more 3:30 a.m. wake-ups. No more coming home at dark.

But I'm not a fishing guide. They have a different idea of heaven. It has nothing to do with sunrise, and everything to do with tide.

For instance, in Dudley Vandenborre's dream world every morning would find a 1.5-foot tidal range just starting to fall around 7 a.m.

"The best bite is always during those first two hours of a falling tide," Vandenborre said. "And if it's starting to fall around 7, that's a perfect day because you don't have to leave too early, and as soon as you get to your spot, the fish are biting.

"Then you'll have great fishing, and you'll be done before it gets really hot. That's a perfect combination, when you can match that early start with fishing the tide."

In fact, Vandenborre knows "fishing the tide" is so important he once spent an entire fishing season scheduling his charter trips so his parties would be on the water for that optimal falling tide period. Sometimes they didn't leave the dock until 3 p.m.

"We caught plenty of good fish all season, so I know it worked," Vandenborre said. "But I didn't stick with that because the late trips just got to be too hard on me and the clients.

"On those late days we were fishing until dark. I didn't get finished cleaning fish and the boat until 10 or 11 o'clock," he said. "And some of my clients didn't like driving home late, either.

"But in a perfect world, that's how I'd schedule all my trips. Strictly to fish the tide."

Vandenborre has plenty of company. It is a matter of faith among local anglers that the single most crucial factor to coastal fishing success is adequate tidal movement. Falling is better than rising, but at the very least moving at a decent clip in either direction.

There are exceptions to every other local fishing rule, but not that one. Hang around a local marina for more than an hour and you'll soon hear an angler proclaim, "We were catching 'em on every cast, then the tide stopped."

Since no one had yet learned to speak trout, we can only guess why this is so. The most plausible explanation for this phenomena goes like this:

-- Small critters such as shrimp, cockahoes, mullet, menhaden and baby crabs are powerless to fight a stiff tidal current, so they have no choice but to float along. That means they eventually will be concentrated anywhere tidal flow is squeezed. This includes outflows from marsh ponds, small channels between marsh islands, and the tidal lines that form off points and reefs.

-- Specks, reds and other marsh game fish are conditioned by experience. And after one full year in the marsh, they know the sensation of water moving across their skin means the opportunity to find meals will be more frequent -- and much more fulfilling. So when tidal flow accelerates, they often pick up their search for groceries.

"You can catch fish on a slack tide, but you'll work harder and go a lot longer between bites," Vandenborre said. "And when it gets as hot as it does here in the summer, that stops being fun for the average guy pretty quick.

"So I always try to fish the tide."

But if he's given up on planning trips around peak tide times, how does he do it? Simple - for him.

After more than 30 year fishing Lake Pontchartrain, he's learned how to time the tidal movements at his favorite spots. Unlike many weekend anglers who read the tide tables in the newspaper and expect that data to be the same at all their favorite spots, Vandenborre has been conditioned by his experiences to know peak times will be different -- The Rigolets, The Trestles, Seabrook, Lake Borgne shoreline and rigs.

"For example, I know there's about a one-hour difference in tide times between the south end of the Train Trestles and Seabrook," he said. "So if I can catch the end of the falling tide at the south end of The Trestles, which is good fishing -- when that quits, I'll have time to run over to Seabrook, where I'll catch the beginning of a rising tide, which is a perfect time for that spot."

Another example.

"There's about an hour's difference between the CSX Bridge over the Rigolets and Unknown Pass (in Lake Borgne)," he said. "So I can get one and a half hours of fishing a tide at the CSX. But when it stops I don't go home, I just run over to Unknown Pass, because I know the tide will still be running there."

OK, so Vandenborre deserve a little more credit than simply being "conditioned by his experiences," like some speck. He's a thinking-man's angler, a fisherman who is always asking "Why?" and who just happens to have a computer for a brain when it comes to storing fishing lessons.

"Oh, I think if anyone did it day after day for so many years like I do, they'd pick those things up, too," he said.

He's being too modest. But even if you don't have the Vandenborre computer, you can bring along a notebook and pencil to record what you're seeing from one spot to the next. Because when all is said and done, the surest way for a local anglers to find heaven on earth is to fish the tides.